At the 2008 SGIA event in Atlanta (October 15 to 18, 2008), Durst’s Rho 320R model was named winner in the Large Format UV Roll Printer section in the “Product of the Year” competition sponsored by dpi/SGIA. This 6-color printer with 600-dpi resolution won the award for its sensational print quality.
The competition entailed printing, on a prefixed support, a standard image that included all the characteristics for quality appraisal: color variations, text clarity, color intensity.

The Rho 320R printer from Durst prints large formats on rolls up to 3.2 meters wide, has 8 Quadro-Arrays with 30-pl piezoelectric heads and with Durst’s UV-Roll Ink is able to print up to 130 sq m/h on rolls of paper, PVC film, vinyl and fabric.Along with the Quadro Array, fundamental to quality is also the Durst conveyor mechanism, with a linear motor and patented movement support consisting of milled modules of a special aluminum alloy measured with laser technology. All this makes for streak-less printing even on difficult materials like plastics and, thanks to high-pigmentation UV ink, color is more intense while ink load is less.The prize confirms the success that this high-performance quality printer continues to have on the market. 

Chris Howard (Durst U.S.) and Richard Piock (Durst CEO)

Despite the ephemeral nature of the digital world, even in this technology superior quality proves valid over time: although it is 13 years old, Durst’s Lambda model was the winner in the “Large Format Photowriters” category of the dpi/SGIA quality award at the Atlanta event (October 15 to 18, 2008), confirming its 1000 installations worldwide.

Durst introduced Lambda 130/131, a device for digital laser exposure on photographic paper, in 1995 after three years of development, revolutionizing large-format photograph production. Its 400-ppi continuous-tone quality is created through color lasers and a complex optical system. “Lambdaprints” have become a synonym for quality in both the art and brand-name advertising sectors. Thirteen years after its debut in the photographic sector its quality remains unrivaled.

Taropac is the largest trade show for the packaging and logistics market in Central and Eastern Europe and the Rho 700 is the only product to have won the medal in connection with printing.

This years’ Taropac attracted over 800 exhibitors from 31 countries and 35% of all the visitors where from overseas. Also, there was a record number of new products and services (250) presented at this years’ show.

The Gold Medal of the Poznań International Fair was launched in 1979 and was modelled on other renowned foreign trade fairs and exhibitions. The products are judged under a number of criteria including quality and innovation and several hundred entries are received.

The Rho 700 UV flatbed printers’ modular build concept is already unique in its class: no other UV flatbed printers can be adapted to individual needs or be upgraded later in the field to the same extent. And particularly relevant to the Taropac Exhibition is the recent addition of a corrugated print option. This option enables the direct printing of corrugated boards suitable for use as high quality displays and sample packaging.

In addition to corrugated printing, other optional features available on the Rho 700 include the choice of ink variety; white and special effect varnish, also light colours for finer image quality. There are specific inks for rigid, flexible or absorbing media, ensuring the most cost efficient ink choice. Productivity is maximised by the use of mechanical front stops which enable parallel printing of boards side by side. Furthermore, overall speed can be increased by doubling the number of printheads.

The Durst Rho 700 is yet another award winning product in the Rho range of printers and offers exceptional productivity and superb image quality. Its outstanding performance and reliability is the result of the high level of precision of key components developed and produced by Durst.

Brixen, September 30, 2008: Durst Phototechnik AG, manufacturer of high-performance digital ceramic tile decoration systems and leader in high-end professional digital printing systems for the graphic, pre-press, signage, screen printing, wood industry, packaging, industrial and photographic markets takes the opportunity to showcase these new printers at Tecnargilla 2008, the most important equipment show for the ceramic market. With Gamma 61 and 71, Durst is extending its successful line of Gamma direct digital ceramic decoration systems. In addition Durst will also show a new optional feature, the Durst Structure Match (patent pending) to automatically recognize the tile structure and matching it with the design.

At the Durst booth the new Durst Gamma 71 will be on display, representing together with Durst Gamma 61 a new generation of high-performance direct digital ceramic printers to respond to new market needs, by offering 3-color versions for manufacturing high volume ceramic tiles. Durst Gamma 61 and 71 provide the same state of the art in terms of unsurpassed print quality, reliability and productivity.
These new printers reflect the requirements of the tile manufacturers for an easy integration of the new, revolutionary digital tile decoration to be added to the existing traditional decoration systems. The new Durst Gamma 61 and 71 are the result of a very close cooperation with the many customers operating successfully the Durst Gamma 60 and 70 ceramic tile printers, on the market since 2005 with over 60 printers installed worldwide.   

Durst has been the first company to introduce the first direct digital decoration system with pigmented ceramic inks and has been widely recognized for the versatility and ease of integration of its Durst Gamma digital printing systems into the traditional production workflow offering unlimited new possibilities to respond quicker to new market needs. Additional benefits are the reduction of the costs related to the development of new designs, the quick design changeover and the drastically reduced overall production costs.
With the introduction of the new Gamma 61 and 71, Durst reconfirms its customer orientation. Both systems can be fully upgraded to the Gamma 60 and 70 versions.

Another great innovation is the new Durst Structure Match option (patent pending) to automatically recognize different tile structures and print the different images which match these structures to make structured tiles to look even more naturally. The new Structure Match option can be integrated to all existing Durst Gamma printers in the market.

Durst Phototechnik AG
Durst, leaders in the imaging solutions since 1936, develops and manufactures in two facilities in Brixen, (South Tyrol / Italy) and Lienz (East Tyrol / Austria), a complete range of high-end digital printing systems for the graphic, pre-press, signage, screen printing, ceramic, wood industry, packaging, industrial and photographic markets. Various Durst technologies, including the unique and patented on-the-fly image processing software are industry standards.
The Durst Gamma series are dedicated high-performance digital printers for the ceramic tile market.
To date over 3000 Durst professional digital printing devices are in operation worldwide.

The new Rho 700 UV flatbed printers’ modular build concept is already unique in its class, no other UV flatbed printers can be adapted to individual needs or be upgraded later in the field to the same extent. And now, with the addition of the corrugated print option, their versatility is further increased.
The corrugated print option enables the direct printing of corrugated boards suitable for use as high quality displays and sample packaging.
In addition to corrugated printing, other optional features available on the Rho 700 include the choice of ink variety; white and special effect varnish, also light colours for finer image quality. There are specific inks for rigid, flexible or absorbing media, ensuring the most cost efficient ink choice.
Productivity is maximised by the use of mechanical front stops which enable parallel printing of boards side by side. Furthermore, overall speed can be increased by doubling the number of printheads. The wide choice of printing applications for the Rho 700 is further increased by its ability to print both roll and rigid media and there is a heavy roll option which will enable unattended printing.
The Durst Rho 700 printers offer exceptional productivity and superb image quality. The outstanding performance and reliability is the result of the precision of key components developed and produced by Durst. Key to the finest quality of print combined with the highest output speed is Durst’s own advanced and perfected Quadro® Array inkjet technology. There is also a new concept for the print carriage which includes a linear drive system and the workflow is more efficient due to the new Durst proprietary user software.

One of the products launched at Drupa by Durst is the new Rho 320R UV inkjet printer that establishes anew quality standard for industrial roll-to-roll printing.Precision components developed and perfected by Durst, such as the innovative Quadro® Arrayprinthead technology and the new print carriage concept which includes a magnetic linear drive system,are important features of the Rho 320R.

The unique and reliable high quality white printing option, thelight colour option and the enhanced user software with an integrated maintenance program furthersupport this new quality standard.

An important feature in the overall quality standard of the Rho 320R is the environmentally friendly,low odour Rho Roll Ink which offers a wide colour gamut and high colour density. It enables economicprinting of offset quality particularly for large format indoor applications. Demanding and profitableapplications such as lightbox displays, illuminated posters, window graphics, POP displays and advertisingtextiles can be achieved with the Rho 320R in a previously unattainable quality.

The Rho 320R prints widths up to 320 cm (10.5 ft) on a wide range of coated and uncoated media.

There is an option for printing two rolls side by side up to a width of 160 cm each and a further optionfor perfectly registered doubled sided printing, which includes a media tracking facility. The highproductivity of the Rho 320R means that it will print up to 130 m² (1400 sq.ft.) per hour.As with all Rho systems, Durst offers with the Rho 320R the highest reliability, the capability of 24/7production and best service support in the market.

Durst, Europe’s leading manufacturer of large format inkjet printers, will present no less than three new inkjet printers at the Drupa, Hall 7a, Booth D 13. The first is a UV roll to roll printer in the Rho series, the second is a new flatbed printer created for display production and finally there is a single pass industrial printer for panels of up to 60 cm width. In cooperation with Zünd, Kongsberg and Technigraf, Durst will demonstrate the entire workflow up to the final product. This includes posters printed on fine paper and transparent films, displays made from corrugated fibreboard, packaging, printed cork floor tiles, laminated wood and wood panelling.

Customers engaged in offset and flex printing, as well as those concerned with industrial decor printing, will be able to familiarise themselves with the entire digital workflow process from printing to the finished item. They will also be able to appreciate the potential cost savings attributed to the economical manufacturing processes, such as low volume printing without storage, automated operation and the elimination of high cost work processes.

Many inkjet manufacturers only offer the ability to print without consideration to further operations, which are often the most costly bottleneck of the whole production process. The advantages of the digital workflow become apparent when you view first hand how Durst arranges the whole process in consecutive steps.

The Durst Rho SP 60 is the world’s first industrial scale high speed direct digital printer for the decoration of wood panels up to widths of 63 cm. It offers significant economic benefits as well as exciting design advantages over traditional methods.
Compared to the limitations of conventional decoration techniques this new digital printing technology offers unlimited image variations with no setup costs and therefore eliminates the need to print minimum quantities. It provides far superior image quality, definition and dynamic range and prints onto various substrates creating any colour or shade required.

With this technology you can create an unlimited range of panels with different designs and by using several designs at the same time each panel can be unique. It allows for the development of new products and the ability to offer individual customised solutions. New design samples can also be created much faster and at lower costs.

Full relief decoration
The Rho SP 60 is capable of decorating uneven panels (with medium & strong relief) and ensures perfect definition of all areas. Because decoration of high and low relief surfaces are decorated simultaneously, it prints designs with superb continuity and realism.
Durst is holding various patents on this new, innovative technology, including the Patented Synchronized Inline Printing Engine.
Durst has a wealth of experience in developing and manufacturing industrial scale large format inkjet printers for advertising display, packaging and industrial applications, using heavy duty industrial piezoelectric inkjet print heads. It already produces an industrial scale high speed ceramic printer called the Gamma 60 which is operational at 14 different tile manufacturing companies. For this machine,
Durst developed new inkjet printing technology, comprising four (CMYK) full width inkjet printing arrays that are fully synchronized with the production process. This proven technology has formed the basis for the new Rho SP 60 Direct Digital Wood Decoration Printer.

Durst and its Ink Partner has succeeded in creating a new thermoformable ink totally VOC free and environmental friendly (with no “Dead fish sign”).
The Rho TH Ink is applicable on ABS, Polysterene, thermoformable PVC for designs with 90 deg edges and more than 10 cm (4 in.) depth, showing after deformation a uniform color film with no cracks. Samples of various thermoformed articles, like bike
helmets or décor ladybirds are shown at Durst booth, Hall 7A, D 13.
The Durst Rho TH Ink is usable on all Rho 600, 700 and 800 series.

Durst is proud to announce that the Rho 800 Presto has won two major independent accolades, one in the US, the other in Europe.

WFI Top Product 2008
It has been voted “Top Flatbed Printer” for 2008 by readers of Wide-Format Imaging magazine, an influential commercial imaging trade magazine in the United States.
Wide-Format Imaging has a circulation of more than 17,500, enjoys a reputation as a keen observer of the commercial imaging industry. Among its readers are the owners and operators of the top imaging shops in North America. Asked to vote for the best flatbed printer available – a “breakthrough” platform that vastly improves the imaging process and would be an invaluable asset to their operations – the readers of the magazine selected the Rho 800 Presto.

EDP “Best products of the year 2008” Award
The European Digital Press Association (EDP) has awarded the Rho 800 Presto the EDP “Best product of the year 2008” in the category “Flatbed Printers High Production”.
EDP is an European association for the burgeoning digital print industry. It was established by seven of Europe‘s leading digital print magazines in October 2006 that between them and the recently incorporated publications represent a readership of 120.000.
The awards are issued by a technical committee made up of independent consultants, editors, engineers and other related professionals, who evaluate products launched during the previous 12 months.
Evaluation is based on efficiency, performance, quality/price ratio, design, and ease of use amongst other considerations.